BIRMINGHAM'S lap dancing clubs have joined forces in a bid to help clean up their controversial image.

Owners of the clubs have formed Clubwatch - an organisation dedicated to fighting crime and disorder, promoting public safety and maintaining ethical integrity.

As part of the agreement, they will ban offensive advertising and swap information on dancers "harmful to the industry" and blacklist them.

Offences frowned upon include using drugs or soliciting.

The move follows concern from the city's licensing authorities worried that the explosion in the number of clubs was giving Birmingham the reputation as the lap dancing capital of the country.

The clubs are backing licensing chairman Coun David Osborne's aims of limiting the growth of lap dancing venues and prevent Broad Street turning into an English equivalent of Hamburg's notorious Reeperbahn red light area.

But Coun Osborne is pressing on with inquiries into how other big cities handle the lap dancing question.

Simon Warr, of Spearmint Rhino, is concerned the investigation could become a witch hunt into a problem which does not exist.

He pointed out that it was crime and disorder which deterred visitors to Birmingham entertainment areas, not the presence of lap dancing clubs where there was neither crime nor disorder.

"We are acting to set our own standards for the industry because it is in our interests to make sure Birmingham's image is a good one," he said.